Adobe Fares Poorly in Kaspersky Lab Security Report
With the increased awareness about cybersecurity -- driven in part by the recent avalanche of high-profile hacks, break-ins, and take-downs -- it's more important than ever for vendors to keep their software patched and secure. In some cases that can be a Sisyphean task, as hackers and other bad actors are constantly trying to find vulnerabilities in existing software platforms.
It's been well-documented that weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Adobe's Flash and Acrobat products have been used by hackers as alternative entry points into computer systems that are increasingly being hardened against attack. Microsoft has been especially diligent in this area, with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 both drawing recent praise from experts for improved security.
A recent report by security researchers from Kaspersky Lab underscores this trend, highlighting Microsoft’s improved security posture while pointing out less promising security performances by Adobe and Oracle. The latter two vendors were criticized for producing all the products involved in the top 10 IT security vulnerabilities Kaspersky has detected, with Adobe's Reader, Flash, and Shockwave products involved in 8 of the top 10 system vulnerabilities for the second quarter of 2011.
